Prepping amidst Pandemic - Thread 17

[Sprayitall]

Hi all, starting this thread to continue from preppers thread 16. Because we are amidst a pandemic now, I have changed the title to prepping amidst pandemic than “for pandemic”. I hope all of you keep well amidst this and get all the help, support and hope needed to cope during this challenging times. Feel free to add your thoughts, preps and ideas here.

Thanks for your reply

If you batch cook you risk losing everything if there is a power cut. Better to store in lots of different ways.

I have lots of tins, dried and long life food. I struggle with meat and fish so this would all be frozen.
I know we should eat less meat but dh will never change.
Thanks to everyone on these threads for advice and ideas.
If anyone has a recommendation for any tinned meat products that actually taste nice please let me know.
Just to let you know I eat lots of veggie and vegan dishes.

meat in tins is just not the same. the best I have found are chicken curries, but there is not so much chicken in them.

For shelf stable meat products, we too haven't found much we like. Tesco curries are ok, as is their sweet and sour chicken (lots of chicken in that one). If you can find packet Look What We Found, the chilli is good...can't tell you about the other flavours as some contain milk which I can't have. I've also just ordered some of the M&S shelf stable Plant Kitchen dishes which have plenty of lentils for protein. I could try and make a version for mich less cash, but I'd like to have some ready to go options.

@thelegohooverer I think I have decided to keep the quail and rig lights to keep them in lay over the winter. It is just DH and I at home in term time now and I think I can manage to sort the freezer out to get some Christmas stuff in. It doesn’t look like we will be needing large quantities of Christmas food this year ☹️

The M & S tinned curry and chilli are expensive but really quite good. I have stocked up on Nescafé sachet coffees from Costco, they do latte or cappuccino unsweetened, but if fresh milk is a problem they already have the milk in them.

Thanks for your suggestions, I love curries and chilli

We like the chicken in white sauce you can buy and usually eat it with rice, I used to love it in vol au vants so I’m sure you could make something like a puff pastry pie with it too.
Meatballs really weren’t a hit and we also tried Asda’s pulled pork in a tin, it was ok so we keep a couple of tins on the shelf. I’m sure if we needed it it would make a bit of a change

Hi - delurking to say we used a small tin of chicken in white sauce in a pasta bake and it worked really well. Tinned stewed steak we made into steak pie.

Costco has this chicken. DParents love it with mayo in salads and sandwiches. www.costco.co.uk/Grocery-Household/Speciality/Kirkland-Signature/Kirkland-Signature-Premium-Chunk-Canned-Chicken-Breast-6-x-354g/p/898070

[quote AspergersMum]Costco has this chicken. DParents love it with mayo in salads and sandwiches. www.costco.co.uk/Grocery-Household/Speciality/Kirkland-Signature/Kirkland-Signature-Premium-Chunk-Canned-Chicken-Breast-6-x-354g/p/898070[/quote]
We buy this
It’s the least offensive I’ve had. I think it’s actually probably decent, but I have a mental block

I've tried tinned Danish ham before. Not great in sandwiches but fine chopped up and mixed with pasta and tomato sauce. I've got a few tins in the cupboard.

I haven’t found any tinned meat that we like, so we’ll just have to manage without. I keep tinned salmon and the odd jar of frankfurters.

There isn’t much available in Ireland and I’ve been fantasising about French supermarkets.

The Costco chicken is good in tomato sauce with pasta, I haven’t tried it cold.

One of the issues I have is that dh and ds both hate cheese and nuts. So using those as alternatives to meat is a non starter. We do have lots of meat in the freezer but I would like more cupboard options. We all like tinned tuna but obviously cant live on that for weeks on end!

Me too, LovePoppy. I also have an issue with animal welfare in non-UK meat so it won't be in my stockpile but I know plenty of people like it (love would be too strong a word).

EmmaGrundy have you tried a mixture of mackerel and sardines, mashed together with greek yoghurt and mayo, with pasta? If I want to be real fancy I go a step further and bake it with a squirt of ketchup plus grated cheese on top, then crush and sprinkle walker's salted on top when its done.

I have been expanding the range of tinned fish I have - so not just tuna (both in brine and in oil), but also salmon, crab, clams and sardines (although only DH eats sardines - but he does love them!). And we keep trying different ones if we see them (I have a tin of octopus for our next experiment...).

I also keep packets of chorizo sausage and bacon lardons from Lidl in the fridge, as both have quite long life. I usually have a salami of some sort in there too for "raw" eating, and some dried jerky type meat in the cupboard.

But I think we're mostly relying on freezer for meat for meals. It's hard to get tinned meat here, and it always feels like it's ultra cheap and low quality when it is there (like pie in a tin meals).

Lentils, tinned and dried beans, wholemeal pasta and brown rice?

If you want to swap to lentil Bolognese or chilli, I recommend doing it in stages, gradually increase the proportion of lentils to beef. Good for health and the environment and economic.

I should have added that we don't have Costco or similar near us, and tinned meat is not a huge item in supermarkets here. Not even spam!

We are isolating pending test results so putting general and illness preps to the test. Sorted for food, with deliveries from several suppliers should not need to touch the stash and if we did would be ok for most things.

What we do not have enough of without a delivery are: lucozade, calpol, ice lollies, jelly, plain biscuits. Another week and would be low on tissues too.

Lexloofah hope you get your results soon. We were in the same situation and only had to wait 48 hours but it felt like an eternity! If you get desperate, homemade lucozade is very easy if you have salt, sugar, and juice (lemon juice works fine if you add enough sugar).

1/2 cup lemon or any other juice
2 cups water
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons sugar

Thanks AspergersMum, have lemons in the freezer, no idea why I froze them but now I know what to do with them!